CRS Issue Statement on the Federal Workforce: Human Resource Management

Barbara L. Schwemle, Coordinator
Analyst in American National Government

The federal workforce is critical to ensuring that the various responsibilities of the national government are carried out. Therefore, making certain that the federal human resources management (HRM) policies governing federal personnel serve to attract, retain, and reward a highly capable workforce likely will continue as a policy issue for Congress during the second session of the 111th Congress. The HRM policies are codified in Title 5, United States Code. Over the last several years, discussions have focused on such questions as whether the current policies are sufficiently performance based and flexible, but a consensus has not yet emerged on whether or how to proceed with any amendments to government-wide policies on management of the federal workforce. Congress authorized major new personnel systems for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD) that had the potential of covering a significant portion of the federal workforce under labor management relations, adverse action procedures and appeal rights, and pay for performance policies that differed substantially from those covering employees in other executive branch agencies. (The DOD personnel system is commonly referred to as the National Security Personnel System (NSPS)). Reduced appropriations, court challenges, and congressional amendments resulted in DHS abandoning its efforts to implement a new system, and Congress repealed the NSPS in Section 1113 of P.L. 111-84, enacted on October 28, 2009. By 2012, DOD must return those employees currently covered by NSPS to the General Schedule (GS) or to the pay scale they were covered under prior to NSPS. Some DOD employees are concerned about the transition because, under NSPS, they received pay greater than would be permitted under the GS. In June 2010, the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia conducted a hearing on the issue. This transition process will continue to be an oversight issue for Congress. In addition, Congress, and particularly the committees of jurisdiction in the House and the Senate, likely will examine whether agencies should be covered or not be covered by Title 5 for all or some of their HRM policies and, in turn, implications for the uniformity of the federal personnel system and oversight of it; and the roles of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of Management and Budget in establishing policies for the overall management of executive branch personnel. 

Accompanying the need for effective personnel policies is the requirement that federal civilian employees be able to competently fulfill their duties and respond efficiently to the demands placed upon them. OPM has advised federal agencies about the various staffing flexibilities available for use, particularly in an emergency, and in situations that might require workforce restructuring. Additionally, agencies may use awards, to motivate and reward, and incentives, to recruit and retain, employees. Telework—a work arrangement in which an employee regularly performs officially assigned duties at home or other worksites—is a tool that OPM and the General Services Administration (GSA) continue to endorse, including its role as a possible component of continuity of operations planning. Affording all eligible employees the opportunity to telework is of particular interest to certain Members and legislation to require such in the executive branch was reported in the House (H.R. 1722) and passed the Senate (S. 707) in the 111th Congress. The Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia conducted a hearing on work-life programs for federal employees in May 2010. Oversight of these HRM programs will likely continue. 

Pay compression, especially affecting federal civilian white-collar employees paid under the GS, continues as an issue in the second session. Not all employees received the full amount of the pay adjustment provided in January 2010 because of statutory limitations on GS pay that correspond to Executive Schedule (EX) pay rates. Basic pay cannot exceed EX Level V ($145,700, as of January 2010); basic pay and locality pay combined cannot exceed EX Level IV ($155,500, as of January 2010); and total compensation cannot exceed EX Level I ($199,700, as of January 2010).


Date of Report: July 1, 2010
Number of Pages: 6
Order Number: IS40313
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